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Kirishima
Almost precisely opposite New Tottenham on a globe, the somewhat smaller island of Kirishima shelters its dramatically different culture from the world at large. Characterized by strict etiquette, disciplined handiwork, a certain, minimalistic sophistication of aesthetics, marked valuing of family over individualism, a bit of ethnocentricity, and an absolute obsession with the concept of honor: this is Kirishima. BREAKDOWN OF TERMS: A Kirijin is a person from Kirishima. Her ethnicity is Kirishan, and she speaks Kirishan. History Geography, Climate, and Environment Demographics Language The official language of Kirishima is Kirishan. Religion Kirishima’s religion represents a mix of deference for spirits (kami), ancestor worship, and polytheism. Due to the typical aloof nature of gods, the former two are by far the most prevalent in day-to-day life. Kirishan beliefs hold that spiritual essences exist in everything—inanimate, human, or more greater and more abstract—and that deference and attention to these forces promotes balance. Respect for the spirits can curry favor and, conversely, unpleasant coincidences are often attributed to uneasy spirits. In the latter case, a monk (a unisex profession) may immediately take steps to correct the issue…just in case. Of all the spirits in the world, the ones with the most reason to pay attention to a given individual are her own ancestors. Many people pray to their forebears for guidance or strength. In addition, one’s ultimate fate in the afterlife—good, better, or horrific—is believed to be their decision, so honoring one’s ancestors in both ritual and deed is a wise idea. The religion’s animistic tendencies place tremendous value on old, hand-crafted, or frequently-used items: a plain clay teapot used by a famous tea-master eighty years ago is infinitely more coveted than a solid gold pot freshly imported from Afsana. Family Structure The division of gender roles is unapologetically pronounced in Kirishima. A man is expected to work outside the home, represent his family to the public, defend his family from harm, and dutifully serve the ends of his Lord and the Emperor. His surname and legacy are the ones passed down to his children, so maintaining the family’s honor is considered primarily his domain. The city’s front-line military is all but exclusively male, and females are rare in every area of the military except medicine. (Public secretarial work is also a man’s domain and held in fairly high esteem, a common profession for military officers after retirement.) In terms of child-rearing, a father’s major duties are to prepare his heir to take on the family mantle as well as procure suitable professional opportunities and/or marriages for all of his children. A woman, meanwhile, is charged with marrying well and maintaining her home. From cooking, housekeeping, and other chores (or supervising servants in the same), to hospitality, to handling the family’s bookkeeping and finances, maintaining a state of tranquil functionality is entirely her responsibility. Women’s etiquette centers around being soft-spoken, poised, and gently demure, and the quality of her manners are considered a reflection of her respect for her husband, which directly affects his perceived honor. It would be a dire mistake to assume that women lack power: Kirishan women are simply subtle about such matters. Quiet words in the right ears can rattle nations, and, depending on the dynamic of the relationship and the power of her own family name, many quietly manipulate their husbands and affect the larger world through this puppetry. The divide between both sexes blurs a bit in the working classes, especially the merchant class. While still expected to observe proper, feminine etiquette, female shopkeepers, restaurant owners, and innkeepers, to name a few, are quite common. Men, for their part, may be less aloof at home than their wealthy counterparts. Government and Politics Divisions Each sector of the city is overseen by Lord personally appointed by the Emperor. It should be noted that this isn’t quite so lenient a system as Tot’s governors: these Lords more or less own everyone in their sector not of noble blood. In addition, each area of the city is walled off and gated from the next. While permits to move between them—some indefinite—are easily granted by public officials to appropriate people, this has the effect of rigidly reinforcing classes despite Kirishima’s lack of an official caste system. To permanently relocate from one sector of the city to another requires a writ signed by one’s Lord. Finally, note that each district is frequently called by the name of its Lord. i.e., the trade district, which is overseen by Lord Yukimura, is more commonly referred to as the Yukimura District. Lord MINAMI oversees the industrial district. Definitely not the most scenic stop on a tour of the island, many of Kirishima’s poorest citizens live here to work in the factories and keep the island floating. Some well-educated scientists and engineers do make their homes in the few nice townhomes here, but many of them commute from other districts. Lord FUKUI oversees the aft district, also known as the Warrior’s district. Home to most of the city’s standing military and their families, from the lowest grunts to decorated generals, this district showcases more classes than any other. Lord Fukui is a retired general, but holds no more military power than any other Lord… officially. Lord TAKENAKA oversees the portside district inhabited by most of the city’s wealthier residents, which also houses the majority of reputable artistic establishments, fine dining, high theatre, etcetera. This beautiful sector showcases masterful architecture, private gardens cultivated over generations, and well-kempt people donning fine silken clothing. Lord YUKIMURA oversees the trade district as well as much of the city’s imports and exports, including the trade agreement with an ocean city that provides a steady supply of frozen fish and other seafood. Wayfaring traders, innumerable shopkeepers, skilled craftsmen, and some wealthier investors make their home in this city. Lord MOCHIZUKI oversees the secondary island flanking Kirishima proper, where the vast majority of the island’s silk and non-oceanic food is produced in several tiers of elaborately engineered gardens and other “farmland.” The Mochizuki family is well-known to be deeply tied to the Black Lotus, so, needless to say, the city’s food supply is uncommonly well protected. Foreign Relations In a culture resistant to change, human modification faces something of an uphill battle. Although not as thoroughly reviled as one may fear, Kirishima places significant value in the purity of the human form, and such advances are viewed with significant wariness. Screws are by far more socially acceptable, regarded with anything from distaste to respect depending on an individual’s predilections. Surges—particularly if the surge is still of breeding age—are significantly more reviled: due to Kirishan emphasis on bloodlines, anything that can alter DNA is viewed as a foul taint. Xes are viewed with somewhat more pity than original surges, although some ostracization is common. Many Kirijin believe that an X’s altered DNA effectively severs them from their ancestors’ bloodline in favor of a lonely new one. The Empire of Afsana Though a major trading partner, relations with Empire of Tales are usually tense. Kirishima buys substantial amounts of pure metal, fissionable material, and tea from Afsana, and exports silk, spices, choice food, and masterfully-crafted weapons and trinkets in return. Unfortunately, Kirishima also seems to export an inordinate number of slaves in that direction, and its ambassadors are frequently demanding crackdowns on piracy and the immediate release of Kirishan nationals. Unfortunately, as Kirishan slaves are highly fashionable (and so highly valuable), trading in Afsana remains a risky career move. In recent years, some Kirishan merchants have switched to using (gaudy and inferior, by their telling) Afsanian airships to make themselves less conspicuous targets. Camorra The farthest port Kirishima deals with directly, relations with this island are quietly cordial. (Few understand that this largely due to shared Black Lotus influence.) Kirishan silk, art, and porcelain are hungrily snapped up by the locals. Most of the time, only currency-equivalent commodities are sought in return. Financially, the island mostly serves as a back-up source for certain commodities when relationships with Afsana become especially strained. Kirijin looking for an exotic journey abroad frequently select Camorra. Little Birmingham Kirishima maintains a cool, detached trading relationship with Little Burmingham, but fosters little diplomatic contact beyond trade-related issues. New Tottenham Mostly due to distance, Kirishan ships rarely find their way to New Tottenham. Most of Tot’s Kirishan imports (spice, silk, some art and artisan crafts) were acquired from Camorra or Little Burmingham. For similarly hemisphere-related logistics, most Kirijin in Tot are there to say. The only Tottian shipping company that makes the full circuit to Kirishima is Caravelle Enterprises. Military and Law Enforcement Weapons After a long, long history of advanced, ritualized swordsmanship techniques and tremendous romanticization of the same, Kirishima is far from ready to let go of its scabbards just yet. Its folded, single-edged swords—typically produced in sets of three—are nearly legendary in their workmanship, and its swordsman follow those stories step for step. No military officer is seen with his swords, and if a noblemen’s dispute comes to a duel, they will always settle the matter with blades. That said, guns are a complication. A master swordsman can only do so much with a bullet lodged in his brain. While some traditionally-minded romantics stick to sword alone, most people who expect violence now carry firearms as well. (Or, in some cases, especially in the merchant class, carry a gun instead.) Most noblemen will conceal a pistol and show only the swords. The Black Lotus A very long time ago, before the Surface began evacuating, three major assassins’ guilds came together to create the modern Black Lotus. One hailed from Kirishima. That clan exerted significant influence on the new guild’s symbology, values, and culture, which remains clear in the organization today. The earliest leaders of the Black Lotus were Kirishan, but their culturally-ingrained resistance to change became a problem when cities began evacuating to the sky. After causing a quiet civil war over their hesitation to follow suit, the Kirishan Lotus ultimately surrendered to an upstart leader from the sky-city of New Tottenham, swearing his fealty. An honorbound vow is a powerful force to subsequent generations and, so far, no member of that bloodline has attempted to reclaim power. The Kirishan branch of the organization has fallen into a degree of insular obscurity since then, though its overseeing Petal sends reports to the Lotus in New Tottenham as appropriate. While not exactly in control of the government, the Black Lotus is extremely influential on the island and maintains an unspoken understanding with the Imperial powers-that-be. The organization works with quiet diligence to maintain the order and status quo of the island, detect and repel surreptitious threats, and supply necessary commodities the government can’t legally procure. In return, so long as their activities remain invisible to the public and outside forces, (and if not, their actions are conveniently easy to disavow), the government turns a blind eye to the guild’s workings. Martial Arts Whatever impressions the outside world has of Kirishima, one element of its culture seems to have captured the international imagination above all others: its methods of combat and the deeply spiritual, all-pervasive way in which practitioners embrace them. Kirishan martial arts are divided into five schools, each taking inspiration from one of the five elemental forces defined by the nation’s religion. Non-Kirishan practitioners of these methods are rare, but existent: most are trained by the rare Masters who permanently left their homeland for any reason. A smaller number studied on Kirishima proper after achieving victory in a foreigner’s distinctly uphill battle for respect and limited acceptance. The Way of Earth Heavy-handed and steadfast, the defense-rich Earth Style is focused on standing one’s ground. Heavily based on strength and leverage, at least one foot is planted in this style most of the time, with heavy focus on the movements of the hands and torso. The Earth Style is patient, featuring a tremendous arsenal of blocks and grappling techniques. Practitioners of this style are taught to exhaust showier, quicker-moving opponents and quietly await the perfect opening to stage a devastating counterattack, typically gauged to cripple the opponent with a single blow. The best defense against an Earth Practitioner’s fist is to never take a hit from an Earth Practitioner’s fist. Earth Practitioners are often heavyweight fighters. This Way lends itself well to heavy armor and heavy weaponry, though roughly two-thirds of practitioners fight with bare or armored fists. This style has some capacity for improvising weaponry. Though practiced by nobles like any other—and the favored discipline of the Yukimura family, which has been responsible for the development of almost all its advanced techniques through the generations—The Way of Earth is the one most commonly practiced by the merchant and labor classes. (Note that it still takes a school or master to learn, and is a pervasive way of life to be entwined with their jobs and everyday responsibilities. Plain street brawling is not The Way of Earth by any means.) The Earth Style is most vulnerable to the Way of Water, which can turn the Practitioner’s strength against him. The Way of Steel Also known as The Sacred Art of the Sword, the Way of Steel bonds a man so deeply to his blade that it becomes an extension of his own body and will. A blanket term for hundreds of smaller schools and disciplines—many of them ancient, and many unique to certain bloodlines—a Steel Practitioner perfects dozens or hundreds of techniques through endless repetition. Every movement, from his manners and approach to an opponent, to the lightning-fast drawing of his weapon, the tidal force of a single slash, and everything that lies beyond, has been cultivated by a lifetime of study. The vast majority of schools within the Steel Style focus the perfect use of a single blade, usually the long Katana, although some employ the scabbard or a shorter sword in the practitioner’s guard hand. The exclusive domain of the noble classes and so a man’s entire calling undiluted by a day job, this utterly respected art is expected to consume a man’s entire way of thinking. Balanced between attack and defense, physical and mental, combat and art, the perfect avatar of this style is a warrior, scholar, and poet, all at once. More rigidly bound to their honor than even the average Kirijin, Steel Practitioners live under exceptional pressure to live up to Kirishan ideals. A tremendously dishonored Metal Practitioner is by far the most common victim of ritual suicide to spare his family’s honor from his sins. The Way of Water Flowing, changeable, and irresistibly forceful, the Way of Water is designed to sweep even the most irresistible of forces into a direction the Practitioner finds more suitable. Focused primarily on redirecting an opponent’s own strength and using it against him, this exceedingly mobile style can be baffling to its victims. Useful in everything from shattering an Earth Practitioner’s arm with his own powerful strike or outmaneuvering a Fire Practitioner and trapping his with his own momentum, the Way of Water is an excellent choice for both self-defense and for breaking otherwise untouchable opponents. This Path features a large number of ways to put an opponent on the ground, ranging from a wide array of throws to leg sweeps to advanced bars. Notorious for shattering limbs and necks, many of these Practitioners have a funny habit of looking terribly relaxed at all times, even aloof, which often leads to underestimation they can exploit. While staffs, sai, and, less commonly, chain weapons sometimes appear in this Style and often supplemented with a short blade to finish the job, the Way of Water is normally an unarmed approach to combat. The Way of Bamboo The Way of Bamboo is unique from every other path in many ways. Most definitively, it is as pacifistic as a martial style can be. Designed purely for defense—of either oneself or another—the Way of Bamboo has a tremendous arsenal of methods for disabling opponents without serious harm. Borrowing heavily from Water’s techniques of force redirection (but somewhat more stationary, more prone to holding a small area than to running wide like Water Practitioners tend to,) a Bamboo Practitioner bends and sways with the flow of combat, twisting an opponent’s force against him to pin him, send him flying, or, if necessary, break limbs. Pushed far enough, Bamboo Practitioners have been known to permanently damage opponents in ways designed to cripple their fighting ability indefinitely. This ability is very much feared by Practitioners of every other school. Arguably the most intellectual of the styles, students of this discipline spend as much time with books as they do in physical training. The Way of Bamboo is bolstered by an exhaustive understanding of human anatomy. Whether bare-handed or with a short, blunt rod shaped to rest securely in her palm, a Bamboo Practitioner pushed into combat will grasp or strike at pressure points to control opponents, disable them limb by limb, or cripple them with pain. Practiced primarily by monks, priestesses, and a few noblewomen, practitioners of this style don distinctive red robes in active combat situations. More powerfully protective than any armor against other Kirijin, this attire marks them as strictly off-limits to lethal force. To kill a Bamboo Practitioner who’s wearing red—the medics and chaplains of war—is an unbelievably shameful act, an atrocity from which a man may never salvage his honor. By the same token, the laws of the land strictly prohibit mimicking their protective garments too closely: old stories speak of a dishonorable clan that went to war and won the day by camouflaging many of their soldiers in the guise of Bamboo. The full fury of the Emperor’s army came down upon them, executing the entire clan and going so far as to strike their names from all historical records. (Many rumors about the “lost clan” and the descendents of possible survivors circulate today, but that’s a story for another time…) The Way of Fire The Way of Fire’s best defense is its immediate and overwhelming offense. Centered around rapid and viciously effective attacks, this style aims to rapidly decimate its enemies, neutralizing them before they have time to retaliate. Markedly deadly on the battlefield, any story of a swordsman cutting a wide swath through crowds of less skilled opponents is most likely referring to a master of the Fire Style. Quick, highly mobile, and featuring little defensive specialization, Fire Practitioners rely on pure speed to stay alive. Whether taking on multiple enemies or harrying a powerful one, these practitioners have been known to switch between large strikes committed to lethality or bleeding and weakening opponents with many smaller blows. The Way of Fire is by far the most versatile Path in terms of weaponry. Many well-developed schools (and some inventive individuals) have developed extensive Fire-based techniques specialized for his weapon of choice. Although Fire Practitioners typically shun heavy, cumbersome weapons that slow their movements, anything else is fair game. These range from sword techniques to bare hands and, though it’s controversial even amidst the Path’s own masters, the Fire Style is the only Path currently embracing fledgling schools of firearm-based tactics. Although the majority of Fire Practitioners are noble, this style’s weapon versatility makes it a viable option for commoners as well, (in order of rank: the farmer, labor, and merchant classes), who face severe legal repercussion for so much as touching a sword or firearm. (Though, with a rise in Afsanan piracy, merchants have recently gained the legal right to firearms by permit.) The Way of Fire is the most common basis for weapons improvised from common tools, including staves, scythes, and weighted chains. Economy Kirishima's debts are low and its economy strong, die in part to its borderline-isolationist nature. The government frowns upon diluting and contaminating Kirishan culture with too much outside influence, so it imports much less than it exports. Food A side-island dedicated exclusively to agriculture isn’t the dire money drain one might suspect. Though it’s not cheap to keep in the air, Kirishima is able to export significant amounts of rice, produce, and even valuable beef. (Beef is nearly as immensely expensive in Kirishan as anywhere else: the city exports far more than it consumes.) This is the mainstain of the nation’s economy. Silk When Kirishima took to the sky, its silkworms were more carefully guarded than most people. The caution paid off. Although the city consumes a good deal internally, fine silk is its single largest export and second only to food in supporting the city financially. Income Poverty & Wealth Infrastructure Transportation Energy Science & Technology Magic is regarded extremely highly in Kirishan culture. Featuring unusually heavily in everything from the island’s science to the handiwork of its master craftsman, natural duscopic lensing is considered a tremendous blessing and all but ensures a good livelihood and respected standing in one’s family. At least, if one doesn’t screw up tremendously. Education To maintain long, provable family histories, long records are necessary. Due to this necessity, Kirishima managed to preserve a very extensive collection of books and information during their evacuation to the sky. Although primarily concerned with the preservation of their own culture, scholars accumulated tremendous stockpiles from elsewhere as well. All of it is located in a library on the palace grounds, well-guarded and accessible by permit only. Kirijin aren’t known for being particularly warm towards intruders visitors, but while the island’s tourist trade can be lacking, scholars and other seekers of lost knowledge often find that there can no substitute for Kirishan’s wealth of recorded history. Health Culture From the Captain of the Emperor’s Guard to a lowly street-cleaner, it’s a rare Kirijin who can’t recite five or more generations of his paternal bloodline…and just as many on the other side despite lack of practical application, if his mother’s lineage is impressive enough. A Kirijin’s family name is immensely important. It represents his dearest and most unalienable treasure, the core of his own reputation, and a major factor in which opportunities/obligations he’ll have thrust upon him throughout his life. The greatest victories and most vile mistakes of one’s grandfather have a tremendous affect on the present day, and maintaining a glorious legacy (or making up for archaic screw-ups and reclaiming the family’s honor) is every bit as important as putting food on the table. This sense of obligation is maintained is in no small part because a responsible Kirijin must always consider that the choices he makes will reflect equally upon his children, and their children, and so on. For better or worse, Kirishima’s memory is immeasurably long. Ettiquette Kirishima has a way of ritualizing many, many corners of daily life. From tea ceremonies to the etiquette of a proper greeting to proper conduct in the dojo (and infinitely more), life on this island is a delicate dance of memorization and etiquette. Though more pronounced in the noble class than in the lowest ones, etiquette is a staple of existence in every corner of the city. A failure to respectfully observe proper manners is taken seriously and, in some cases, can quickly become dangerous for the offender. Due to the low volume of tourists on the island, granting leeway to foreigners is NOT a habit of the typical Kirijin. Clothing Clothing on the island is quite modest, consisting of multiple layers of robes tied with a sash for both sexes. Significant variation in cut and material exist for sex, profession, and class. Silk is worn every day by the upper class, and most merchants with any net worth own at least one silk kimono. Shoes consist of sandals made of compound “wood” from pulverized plant stems, typically lacquered to a blackened sheen. Currency Further Reading Tier, The Surface, Species, Islands of Tier, Island Locations, The Authority, Guilds Major and Minor, Occupations and Mist